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Video Shows Police Officers Beating Men on Manhattan Street in Wild Melee

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Several police officers pummeled a man in the middle of a street in Upper Manhattan on Tuesday afternoon with their batons, fists and feet, according to a witness who took a video of the incident.

The chaotic confrontation, between the police officers and two men, has prompted an Internal Affairs investigation about whether excessive force was used, police officials said.

The beating, the police said, came after two transit officers had an altercation with two men they had asked to leave the entrance of a nearby subway station.

The two men, Sidney Williams, 37, and Aaron Grissom, 36, were arrested on charges of felony assault and other offenses, and treated at a hospital, police officials said. Two of the officers had minor injuries.

Video
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A cellphone video captured police officers beating two men in Manhattan’s Washington Heights neighborhood. Video from that_boy_lucky_, Michael Gonzalez’s Instagram account.

According to police officials, several commuters had complained about the men smoking in an entrance to the A, C and 1 trains at 169th Street on Broadway.

The transit officers spent five minutes trying to persuade the men to move away from the area, and then one of the men threw a punch at one of the officers, which was not captured on the video, the officials said.

Michael Gonzalez, a bystander, said he saw the two men physically accost the officers and began filming the incident, which took place on 169th Street in Washington Heights.

Mr. Gonzalez said a taller man with dreadlocks, whom the police identified as Mr. Grissom, tried to shove or grab an officer with a shaved head.

“I don’t know what he was thinking” Mr. Gonzalez said. “What did he think, the officer was going to back away?”

In the video, the shaven-headed officer flicks open an extendable baton and strikes Mr. Williams, the shorter of the two men, twice over the head. Another officer wearing a watch cap takes a backhanded swing at Mr. Williams, striking him in the face.

A woman off-camera can be heard saying in Spanish, “They were telling them to move away from there, and they didn’t want to. The two of them squared with the police.”

The video shows Mr. Grissom chasing one of the officers down 169th Street; they grapple and fall to the ground. Other uniformed and plainclothes officers rush to join the fight, kicking and striking Mr. Grissom with fists and batons.

One baton strike appears to catch Mr. Grissom flush in the face, dazing him, the video shows. The shaven-headed officer strikes Mr. Grissom multiple times with a baton while he is pinned to the ground. One of the plainclothes officers can be seen repeatedly kicking Mr. Grissom in the torso.

Police officials confirmed that two detectives and an off-duty police officer came to the assistance of the two transit officers. The Police Department did not identify the officers involved. None have been placed on modified duty.

Mr. Grissom and Mr. Williams were arrested at least once before, on Dec. 5, in an attack on two transit officers. The officers had told them not to loiter in the mezzanine area in the same station, court records show.

In that incident, Mr. Grissom threw a punch at a transit officer, and Mr. Williams swung a wooden bat at a second officer, according to a criminal complaint. The men were charged with resisting arrest, attempted assault and possession of about two dozen bags of synthetic marijuana.

Mayor Bill de Blasio, speaking to reporters Wednesday at an unrelated news conference at City Hall, said the video raised disturbing questions for the police.

“If people are on the ground, and yet there’s still physical action being taken, that concerns me,” he said.

Still, the mayor said, Mr. Grissom and Mr. Williams bore the blame for starting the conflict on Tuesday, and he noted that the police investigation into the beating was not finished.

Mr. Grissom, who lives in the Bronx, faces charges of assault, resisting arrest, menacing and other offenses, the police said. Mr. Williams, of Brooklyn, faces charges of assault, resisting arrest and aggravated harassment.

Both men were treated at Mount Sinai St. Luke’s for pain and bruising. Mr. Williams has a nose injury, police officials said.

One of the officers involved in the melee has chipped teeth and a knee injury, the police said, and another has a hand injury.

Mr. Grissom and Mr. Williams had not yet been arraigned on criminal charges, according to the Manhattan district attorney’s office.

A correction was made on 
Jan. 9, 2019

An earlier version of this article misstated the day Mayor Bill de Blasio spoke to reporters at City Hall. It was Wednesday, not Tuesday.

A correction was made on 
Jan. 23, 2019

An earlier version of a video caption misstated the name of an Instagram account belonging to Michael Gonzalez. It is that_boy_lucky_, not that_lucky_boy.

How we handle corrections

Sandra E. Garcia contributed reporting.

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section A, Page 21 of the New York edition with the headline: Police Beating Caught on Video Prompts Departmental Review. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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